EVALS FW and Determinism

• Eval points for FW and determinism

  • S - determinism - its idea of human behaviour having an identifiable cause is scientific and has utility
  • W - aspects of determinism can still be deemed as unscientific
  • S - research has shown that belief in free will can have benfits for mental health
  • W - refuting evidence for the notion of free will
• S - determinism - its idea of all human behaviour having an identifiable cause is scientific and has utility. This is because this idea allows us to predict the impact of events on human behaviour and this leads to the development of specific cause and effect relationships which help us better understand human behaviour. ...
• (S-determinism-scientific and utility)... Determinism as a belief has led to the development of treatments to help those with abnormal behaviour. For example, establishing that the cause of depression is serotonin imbalance has led to specific treatments like SSRIs which can correct such imbalances. This shows that determinism influenced ideas of fixed cause and effect relationships and can be used to improve peoples' lives
• W - Determinism - aspects can be deemed as unscientific. This is because determinism is based on the idea that all behaviour has a cause, even when such a cause has not been discovered yet. Hard determinism may not be as scientific as it initially seems, due to its insistence on unproven causes of behaviour. This claim is also impossible to prove wrong for concepts which cannot be scientifically tested. ...
• (W - Determinism - unscientific)... For example, types of determinism like psychic determinism believe that mental illnesses are due to conflicts in the unconscious mind even though such unconscious conflict cannot be empirically proven in a falsifiable manner. According to Karl Popper, such unfalsifiable claims aren't consistent with pillars of science and thus undermine determinism's validity
• S - research has shown that belief in free will can have benefits for mental health. Roberts et al demonstrated that adolescents with a strong belief in fatalism, the idea that their lives were "decided" by events outside of their control, were at significantly greater risk of developing depression. This suggests that, even if we do not have free will, that fact that we think we do may have a positive impact on mind and behaviour. ...
• (S - belief in free will can have mental health benefits)... This belief in free will has been utilised by humanist therapies e.g. "client controlled therapy" where the client is encouraged to discover their own solutions in a supportive environment leading to better treatment outcomes. This shows that research and belief in free will can have successful and effective applications for mental health treatments. Thus showing that the notion of free will can be useful.
• W - there's refuting evidence for the notion of free will. Soon et al found that brain activity that determines the outcome of simple choices may predate our knowledge of having made such a choice. Researchers found that the activity related to whether to press a button with the left or right hand occurs in the brain up to ten seconds before participants report being consciously aware of making the decision. ...
• (W - refuting evidence for free will)... This refutes free will because it shows that the experience of free will is biologically determined by neurological activity which occurs before we are consciously aware of our choices. This raises doubts about the existence of free will and therefore decreases the validity